NHL transfer ratings: Utah Hockey Club signs Mikhail Sergachev

After a lack of player-centric trades on the first day of the 2024 NHL Draft, there was a blockbuster at the start of the second day.

One team may be able to keep their captain and sign another key player, while the other team has shown that they are serious and want to make big changes ahead of the first season in franchise history.

The Tampa Bay Lightning took the opportunity to potentially solve their Steven Stamkos problem by trading defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club in exchange for defenseman JJ Moser, center Conor Geekie, a 2025 second-round pick (via Toronto) and a 2024 seventh-round pick.

This trade is quite important for several reasons.

Which GM fared better in the trade? Here are our grades for both teams.

Entering the weekend with the most salary cap space in the NHL, Utah was a team to keep an eye on, and the way they used that salary cap space on Saturday showed that the club is serious about trying to win in its first season in franchise history.

Utah general manager Bill Armstrong’s years of financial management experience with the Arizona Coyotes allowed his new team to secure a large contract that other teams could not, and gave Armstrong the chance to completely revamp the team’s defense.

Sergachev is coming off a season that saw him fracture the tibia and fibula in his left leg in early February. He missed 80 days but returned in Game 4 of the Lightning’s first-round series against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, playing 17:01 and recording one assist.

If Utah gets a healthy Sergachev, he is a defenseman who broke out in the 2022-23 season, scoring 10 goals and 64 points, a career-high, while averaging 23:48 minutes per game on the ice. In the 2023-24 season, Sergachev scored two goals and 19 points in 34 games, averaging 22:23 minutes per game on the ice.

Armstrong traded Sergachev and then made another trade to get John Marino and a 2024 fifth-round pick from the New Jersey Devils, while a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 second-round pick went the other way via Edmonton.

With Sergachev and Marino, Utah has two defensemen in their mid-20s who are also under contract for at least three more seasons. This gives Utah a foundation to finalize its back line plans, with Sean Durzi and Juuso Valimaki still awaiting release as restricted free agents, while Josh Brown and Travis Dermott still await release as unrestricted free agents.

While Sergachev and Marino cost Utah a combined $12.9 million in salary cap space, Cap Friendly projections leave Utah with $29.414 million in salary cap space while still having enough draft capital to make another deal possible if Armstrong deems it necessary.

Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said Friday that Stamkos, who will soon be an unrestricted free agent, and the club have not yet agreed on a new contract and that he does not know if they will be able to do so.

By releasing Sergachev and taking an annual cap hit of $8.5 million for the next seven seasons, they were able to increase Cap Friendly’s projected cap space from $5.335 million to $13.835 million. But that was only for a few minutes, as the Lightning traded Tanner Jeannot and his $2.665 million contract to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick and a 2025 second-round pick.

This gives the Lightning a total of $16.5 million in projected salary cap space, which will greatly change how we report on them in the coming days.

Creating that kind of salary space means they should be able to strike a deal with 34-year-old Stamkos, who initially faced doubts about his longevity but has made more than 79 appearances in each of the last three seasons in 2023/24, including his seventh 40-goal haul.

But the Stamkos issue is just one aspect of this trade; it could also mean that they are a serious player in the race for Jake Guentzel.

This deal also allowed the Lightning to rejuvenate themselves while providing additional draft capital.

During his time with the Arizona Coyotes, Moser developed into a player who was able to meet the demands of a top defender and play in a variety of situations.

He’s a pending restricted free agent who needs a new contract. But he also offers the Lightning a younger option at a potentially team-friendly price, as Calvin de Haan, Matt Dumba and Haydn Fleury are also pending UFAs.

Drafted in the first round by the Coyotes in 2022, Geekie gives the club another young player who could help them in the future. By adding two draft picks on top of the two they received from the Kings, they have more capital to replenish a system that has been depleted in recent years.